Well, that’s a terrible idea: How to lead clients into making well-informed, future focused decisions

Let me tell you a little story. 

My team and I have been working with some clients and there’s this phenomenon that we see and it happens all the time, really.

It’s a bit of a flip flop. I want to dive in with you to look at why this flip flop happens. What’s with the wobble?

My team and I spend a lot of time overhauling systems, processes, creating more efficient ways to do things, thinking outside of the box, extrapolating things out and then pulling them all back into a condensed machine way of operating.

When we’re looking at overhauling anything in a business, that means change. I can tell you, humans don’t like change.

Generally, that’s the way it goes, because it feels uncomfortable and it tells us that we’re not safe. So we’re working with the client, we’ve improved one of their core systems in their business. We’ve presented it. We’ve walked them through in detail and they have raved. On the call, they’re saying this is amazing. We’ve never seen anything like it. How cool is this? Fantastic.

So from this point, usually we would go on to then integrate that system into the business. Get the team to know what the new way of working is or what the new process is, make sure they’re confident and keep this business growing.

But, a few days later, the client comes back.

We’re not feeling confident and excited anymore, team. We’ve had a bit of a wobble, and now we’re a little bit worried about all these new things, this new way of doing it. We have two options:

1. The first is to go, not a problem. That’s totally okay. We’ll just change it all back. No harm done. We’re here to help you. If you’re not comfy, we’re in your corner. Or there’s option two. And that is, let’s think about what’s really going on here and lead. In one way, we’re operating in a manner that is of service and support and considering the safety of our clients and the way they’re feeling and protecting that.

2. The second is leading and trying to understand. at a higher level what’s really going on. Because there was a reason we decided to change things, and that reason would have been valid and important or we wouldn’t have made the choice to go down this pathway of change. So is it really fair on our clients if when they have a little bit of a wobble for whatever reason, we just say, yep, no worries, if that’s what you want to do, cool, cool. I don’t think it is, because they’re not seeing it clearly right now. At one point they saw that something needed to change. Whatever drove that was big enough for them to go, even though I don’t like change or this might look different, I’m happy to do it. But in the moment then we’ve done a wobble. We need to be able to reflect that back and we need to be able to help them explore this. That’s your job.

You are being of service when you’re able to bring the outcome back to the forefront of the conversation and say, Hey, I recognise that this might not be easy, or I recognise that previously we really wanted to change this so that we could achieve X, but now we seem to be saying something different.

Is there a reason we’ve changed our thought process? And open a conversation to talk about it and make sure we’re still working towards our goals. Regardless of how we feel right now, we need to look at the bigger picture and re-evaluate if it’s worth listening to this feeling or rationalising that feeling.

 

This episode shares:  

• Identify the source of client hesitation: People don’t just change their mind with no thought process. And usually if it’s a poor choice there are two things at play – fear and lack of knowledge. You need to work out where the wobble happened.
• Open a productive conversation: Acknowledge the elephant – emotions. No one likes getting told their idea isn’t the best.
• Consider the options and present them: Carefully think about each one, the positive impact of each, the possible consequence of that.
• Collaborate on a solution: Guide your client towards a decision that feels safe and effective.

Identify the source of client hesitation

The first step is to dig deeper, and you’ll hear me say this all the time. Dig deeper, always. Get as much information as you can. People don’t just change their minds with no thought process or no incident that’s happened. If we have gone from, woohoo, this is awesome, to, oh, this is a real bad idea, or I want to run away, or I’m scared now.

Something has happened and it can just be I’ve taken time to think about it and here’s all the thoughts that came up or it can be I’ve noticed something else or someone else has asked me a question or I’m just having a really rough day, something has happened and usually if it is causing us to lean towards safety and not make a logical choice or a growth decision and it’s pushing us towards a poorer choice or a less efficient or effective choice.

One of two things are at play. One is fear. We are worried about something and we’re worried about what that something might lead us to. If we do it this way and someone else stuffs it up, is my business going to go down in flames? I’m scared. If I let someone else do it, they’re not going to do it the same way as me and then my business is going to go down in flames.

If something is posted at the wrong time, it’s going to damage my brand and my reputation and my business is going to go down in flames. We start all of these little cycles in our brain that lead to something big and scary. And if we’re feeling that, more often than not, we’re not rationalising it. We’re feeling it, we’re trying to find a quick solution to fix it, and we’re moving forward.

Where there’s not fear, there’s lack of knowledge. We can come up with brilliant ideas, solutions, abstract thoughts, innovative ways to do something as OBMs. But sometimes we miss filling in our clients on why we made that decision and what that looks like for them.

So they walk away and then they start to think about all the what-if scenarios.
Or the, no, we’ve always done it this way. Why should we change that? Why? I’m confident with the way we’ve done it. I can get in myself and I can do it. I know what that looks like. It feels safe. It feels familiar. So why would we change it? You’re an OBM. If you’ve made decisions, Or you’re suggesting a different way to do something, there’s a reason behind that.

I know that and we need to help our clients understand the reasoning. To do that, we need to give them the opportunity to voice their thoughts. So that we can answer them just as they need them. The things that pop up and they think and feel. We need to support them through that. So as part of all of this, we’re trying to work out where the wobble happened, and you need to be able to open a conversation and have the discussion to find that out so you can help fix it.

Tip💡: Get as much information as you can from your client.

Open a productive conversation

When you’ve an open conversation with your client, you need to tread carefully. Be gentle and be tactful with the aim of acknowledging the elephant in the room, the emotion. This is the bit that we shy away from. We don’t explain to our clients, Hey, you might be thinking or feeling this way, or we’re going to do this. And this is what a lot of my clients experience when I’m doing it, that’s normal.

Hey, are you making this decision because you’re worried about something? Because what it looks like to me is that we might be feeling unsure, or we might be forgetting why we wanted to change this in the first place. Acknowledge the emotions, name them, normalise them, bring them into the conversation.

We’re making the big scary things less scary.

All with the aim of getting our clients the impact and outcome that they really want and our role isn’t always practical. It’s not always to come up with the solution that is a process. It’s to help them make choices that will lead to the outcome and impact they want. It’s helping them see their thought process And assisting them on finding a way that feels easier.That’s part of our job.

Remember, no one likes getting told their idea isn’t any good. So we don’t ever want to do that. What we want to do is explore the reasoning for why we would do it that way or not do it. There are always 14 different ways to do something and sometimes the only difference is preference, and that’s okay.

Tip💡: Be gentle and be tactful with the aim of acknowledging the elephant in the room (the emotion).

 

Consider the options and present them

 

When the difference is efficiency, or effectiveness, or it’s going to mean different results, we need to get comfortable with discussing options, in a non threatening manner.

As you wear your tact, you need to listen to what your clients are saying, understand what’s happening underneath, and what the driving thoughts and feelings are for what you’re looking at, and then consider what options you have. What options can you see and present them? Carefully think about each of the options that have been discussed.

Then talk to your client about the pros of each one and the cons of each one. What could the positive impact of doing it this way be? What does it mean? That could be I’m used to doing it that way, so it’s easy. There’s no learning curve. Awesome. What could the possible consequence be?

I’m going to stay where I’ve always been. Because if I keep doing the same thing, nothing’s going to grow. I’m going to get the same result. Okay. And what if we look at a different option? One of the cons is I don’t know how that plays out. I’ve not done it before. I can’t see how it would work and then one of the pros could be, it means that we’re going to be able to achieve our goal faster because the process is more streamlined and it’s going to save us an hour every time we do it.

We’re building the reasons why we should take this step of bravery and we’re looking at it from a point that includes our thoughts and feelings and how easy it is for us to adopt new ideas or how hard. Then we get to make a decision that does cover all the parameters. We’re helping frame things in a way that goes back to the outcome our clients want, but considers the journey of getting there and lays it out in an easy to discuss manner. So once you’ve done that, you’ve put out all the options on the table.

Tip💡: Put out all the options on the table to discuss strategically.

Collaborate on a solution

Once we’ve got really good discussions. I want you to tackle your own alarm.

If you feel strongly about something, a certain way to do something, whether or not we should choose path A or path B, there’s a reason for that and you need to know what the reason is. So if you’re having a reaction that says, no, no, no, we can’t go back to what we were doing, or no, please don’t pick that way. We need to pick the other way. You need to work that out within you and you need to think about, okay, why is it? My guess is because you’re invested and that means you care about the outcome. So your knowledge that you’ve got, your experience that you’ve had. We’ll kick in and say, no, that’s a bad idea.

That’s a bad idea. We can’t do that. That’s going to ruin everything, but it doesn’t kick in and say why. So we need to dig into that a little bit more. Then we need to explain that to our clients. I’m really invested in the results that you’re going to get. I’m concerned that if we do it the way we’ve done it before, these are the things we’re going to experience.

You’re going to end up burnt out again. You’re going to have too much to do. You’re not going to be able to launch the new thing that you want to launch. And that’s all you’ve talked about for six months. And we’re jeopardising it because we don’t want to change. Be honest and be truthful. Explain why it matters and why it matters to you and why you’re even bringing it up.

Make your recommendation or suggest a new  pathway. You might go back to what you’d already planned or you might say, based on this conversation, maybe we could do it this way and come up with a whole new approach. But you have to set the scene first. You have to give them the opportunity to think and you have to show your reasoning and your investment in a way that’s not scary and that’s honest.

After you have given the oportunity to think to your client, you want to reinforce a collaborative approach. To do that, you go back to your client and you say, based on this conversation, what do you feel more comfortable with? What are you happy to do? Do you want to go this way or do you want to go this way? Or, do you want to have another chat in a few days, once you’ve processed a bit more, and see what we can come up with together.

We’re giving them options that aren’t by default to go back to the way that things have always been. We’re giving them opportunities to create safety with knowledge. Plans that will help them grow at the same time.

Be happy and content no matter what the outcome is.

When we’re dealing with anything that is big and scary as people, we need to be ready to take the steps to change them and sometimes even if we understand the logic, we’re still too scared to do it. If we’re not in that right place, That’s okay. If now is not the time, that’s okay. We can do our best to help our clients through this and we can give them a glimpse into the mindset and the emotions and how other people have tackled those things.

But if they’re not ready to take on a new way or try a new thing, It’s not going to work anyway. They have to be on board. And so if they choose, no, I need to go back to the way I’ve been doing it. That’s what makes sense for me. It’s okay. No worries. And then we park it, and we look at it again in a few months time.

That’s your job. It needs to be done in the right way, and in the right time. And it’s okay. It’s okay to not need to catapult forwards all the time. It’s doing the right things in the right timing. And so you need to be secure enough to know that it wasn’t your approach that was wrong and it wasn’t their idea that was wrong.

We’re dealing with people and emotions and big, scary things, especially when there’s change. And it’s okay. It’s not one idea is good and one is bad, but we do need to do the journey with our clients. And we need to support them, even if it goes against what we think. As long as we’ve voiced our concern, we’ve given them options, we’ve done everything that we can to positively support them, you’ve done your job.

Tip💡:  Be happy and content no matter what the outcome is..

And… that’s a wrap!

Your job isn’t to fully overwhelm your clients or intimidate them. Be in their corner and be okay with that.

So I hope that this has given you a little bit of a framework to work towards when you’re dealing with clients who are trying to make choices.

Sometimes they’re a bit wobbly or they’re making what you just think is the wrong one.

Especially if you’ve got that alarm going off in you that’s saying, this is a bad idea. We’re going to go back to square one. This framework is how you can tackle it with your clients. Generally, you get a pretty amazing outcome from it. I hope you found this helpful, if you want to get more check out OBM Academy. Don’t forget, leave me a five star review if you enjoyed this episode.

Send me a DM to start a conversation.  Tell me how you’ve handled it. I’d love to know.

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